Ferdinanda Florence

According to Armenian-American artist Ferdinanda Florence,"In both my art and my teaching, I am interested in the concept of liminal—or threshold—spaces, and how the slippery boundaries between inside and outside can act as metaphors for life’s unresolvable paradoxes. Featuring sites in my adopted city of Vallejo, CA, my paintings represent a personal exploration of loss and longing for something untenable and possibly irretrievable.

Almost all of my subjects are industrial or commercial areas, rather than private residences. They are "home" to no one, but I am drawn to them, and find in them something personal and familiar. I admire the resiliency of the architecture, beautifully proportioned, low and obstinately hugging the ground. Yet the buildings’ faces are impassive; despite welcoming awnings and occasional doorways, the buildings here deny ready access. They are difficult to place, both in time and spatially.

Ferdinanda Florence

Ferdinanda Florence Description

Ferdinanda Florence was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Arlington, VA. She received a degree in art history and studio art at The American University in 1994, and has continued to pursue a successful professional life as a scholar, teacher, and practicing artist. She earned her Master’s degree in art history at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1998.

A second-generation Armenian-America, Ferdinanda has explored in her research the role of place in artistic expression. Her Master’s thesis detailed the link between Armenian religious rituals and church architecture. In her travel to sites in France, Italy, and Germany, she has researched the symbolism of doorway and floor decoration in Romanesque buildings. In her artwork, she uses industrial sites in her home city of Vallejo to explore issues of place on a more personal level.

Ferdinanda’s exhibitions reflect her varied interests and concerns. Her work has appeared at the Di Rosa Preserve, Napa (“All in the Family IV,” 2005); the University of San Francisco Law School (“Creative Justice: A Social Art Exhibit,” 2005); and as set decoration for a Bay Area Playwrights Festival performance at the Magic Theater, San Francisco (“As American As,” 2006). Her drawings were selected for exhibition at the next FATE Biennial Conference at the Savannah College of Art and Design in April, 2013.